Suey Park Vows to Continue Fighting the Colbert Fight

As news broke yesterday of Stephen Colbert‘s ascension to the David Letterman throne, there was another wave of mockery directed on Twitter at Suey Park, the Asian woman who spearheaded #CancelColbert.

Nevertheless, per a Thursday Time op-ed co-authored by Park with partner-in-media-representation-protest Eunsong Kim, the pair state that this is just the beginning, not the end:

The main thing we’ve learned from #CancelColbert, and the outcome we now see as Colbert is elevated once again, is that the belittling the voices, activism and writing of women of color is a profitable venture.

There is so much to gain by correcting us, dismissing us, rewriting our narratives. Duly noted, white, neo-liberal hetero-patriarchy — we will be sure to march forward with new tactics and strategies. We are not accidental or frivolous; we are intentional and unrelenting. We do not depend on a beloved white man to begin, end or continue our protest.

While the overarching issue targeted by Park and Kim was valid, the specifics of their hashtag campaign was hampered by a number of problems (some of which separately are being noted in the Time article comments). For one thing, it was Comedy Central that fanned the flames of a poorly conceived joke, not Colbert himself. Also, in big-picture terms, it’s a little strange to savage a TV host who is 100% blowhard caricature.

The attention Park received and the fact that she is writing in the pages of Time remind of the power of social media. Perhaps the pair can now do their best to convince Comedy Central to go with someone like Aisha Tyler for the Colbert replacement spot. Park is based in Chicago; Kim lives in San Diego.